American Idol is (almost) back! Judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan along with host Ryan Seacrest have reunited for the longtime singing competition's 22nd season.
The season premiere on Sunday, February 18 is right around the corner, and fans are starting to get glimpses of what they might expect out of the 2024 installment, from emotional auditions to jaw-dropping performances, and everything in between.
To get viewers excited, longtime host Ryan stopped by Good Morning America Monday morning to talk all things Idol, and even made a sweet revelation about Katy's upbringing.
Speaking with GMA mainstays Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, Lara Spencer, and Rebecca Jarvis, the KIIS-FM fixture noted how the auditions, which were first filmed last year, were held at each of the judges' hometowns.
He said: "Each of them took it very seriously, with a lot of pride showing off their hometowns, where they came from, and it was nice to see. You know, everybody starts somewhere, it was nice to see where they went to school, their teachers, who they were before all of this," adding: "I think the viewers will get a lot out of that."
Katy was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California, while Lionel was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, and Luke is from Leesburg, Georgia.
© GettyFurther in the conversation, asked what most surprised him about visiting the judges' hometowns or what he learned, he shared: "I think, you know, when you think of Katy Perry for example, she's such a global super star and icon… to know that she would go to the farmer's market in her hometown of Santa Barbara and sing for avocados and mangos as her payment, you know it just makes you feel like, what a great self-made story of success in the world of pop music."
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Katy started singing at an early age – she released her first album, a contemporary Christian record, in 2001, seven years before her breakthrough in pop music – but grew up in a deeply religious, ultra-strict household, and has previously shared she was prohibited from listening to secular music.
© GettyThe "I Kissed a Girl" singer's parents, Maurice Keith Hudson and Mary Christine Perry, have worked as Pentecostal pastors and Evangelical ministers for over forty years, traveled the world as preachers, and started their own church in Santa Barbara.
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Speaking with Vanity Fair in 2011, Katy said she "didn't have a childhood" as a result of her parents' strict, religion-led rules.
© GettyShe recalled how her mother never read her any books other than the Bible, being prohibited from saying things like "deviled eggs" or "dirt devil," and her fears of getting "bombed" when she first visited Planned Parenthood, having grown up thinking it was exclusively an "abortion clinic," as opposed to the women's health center with wide-ranging services that it actually is.
"I come from a very non-accepting family, but I'm very accepting," she also noted at the time, before adding: "We coexist. I don't try to change them anymore, and I don't think they try to change me. We agree to disagree."
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